Dagbon Traditional Kingdom celebrates damba festival.

Dagbon Traditional Kingdom celebrates damba festival.

People of the Dagbon traditional kingdom have come out of their numbers in colorful traditional wear on the principal street of Tamale to celebrate this year’s Damba festival.

The Dagbon cultural display was at its best as chiefs and elders were gathered to pay allegiance to their kingmakers with their group of traditional warriors, and drummers displayed their cultural supremacy with musket fire.

Both men and women and in addition, children dressed in their best traditional outfits while the women added pieces of jewelry to make the celebration look colorful and beautiful.

They went on a procession to mark and signified the end of the damba festival celebration through the principal street of Tamale coupled with drumming and dancing.

The culture display included kabonwaa, gonji, nagbegu, and simpa among many others.

The festival also attracted some people who were not celebrating the Damba festival in their tribe and tradition.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, some of the participants expressed their joy and happiness at the Tamale Chief Palace, Gukpe Naa.

A Sub-Chief, Botinnaa Naporo Yahaya from Yung Dakpem Yili said that festivities like damba come to gather all kinds of cultural dances to show their gratitude to the chiefs who enskinned them to support role their jurisdictions.

He noted that those who are celebrating by showing their cultural prowess know the value and weight of the Damba festival in the history of Dagbon.

He added that the large population has shown that people are proud of their culture, urging people within the Dagbon kingdom to respect and enjoy the culture throughout their stay.

“Our dear friends who are here have
witnessed the celebration and saw how happy the drummers were has shown that Dagbon tradition respects everybody,” he said.

Another participant, Alhaji Razak Shani lauded the chiefs for preserving the culture for the younger generation, stating that “without the chiefs, the culture would have been in shamble.”

He challenges the youth to emulate what the chiefs are exhibiting to promote the Dagbon culture and show it to the whole world.

He stated that the traditional dress has shown the identity of every dagomba man when traveled outside the Dagbon kingdom.

Mr. Shani urged the youth to be ambassadors of Dagbon wherever they found themselves by wearing traditional dressed and demonstrating good behavior.

Damba Festival
Its an annual celebration under the Dagomba lunar month of Damba which goes in line with the third month of the Islamic calendar, Rabia al-Awwal.

The traditional kingdoms that celebrate the Damba festival included Dagbon, Gonja, Nanumba, and Mamprugu, in the Northern Region.

Its celebrated to mark the birth and naming of Prophet Mohammed according to Islam, but the content of the celebration on the tradition was chieftaincy glorification.

The week-long Damba celebration starts on the 10th day of the month and ends on the 18th day of the same month, it starts with Somo Damba followed by “Naa” Kings Damba on the 17th day and climaxes with Bielkulsi on the 18th of Damba month.

The celebration is full of showmanship and pageantry including the following activities, prayers and fasting, as well as riding horses coupled with drumming and dancing.

Source: Abukari Alhassan Baba